Final Moments
by oddy-guy
Summary: Cloud and the gang emerge from the northern crater to find dispair and sorrow ensue...


Written by **The Archai**

Inspired by** Square-Enix, "all hail the gods of the game!"(-)**

**Disclaimer: **i do not own any of square enix's or squares characters. though if i did i wouldn't be here right now, i'd be in midgar, all happy and cheerfull with Tifa ;). Square own all places and character from the game.

Cloud foolishly scrambled up from his knees and stood up on the upper deck of the highwind. Tifa rushed over to help him, followed by Barret to see if their valiant friend was okay from his _second_ slip into the fearless lifestream.

"Cloud!" cried Tifa with a passionate tone towards her childhood friend. She quickly put his hand over her head and started helping the injured Ex-SHINRA warrior to his collapsing feet.

Barrett quickly dismantled his gun-arm in order to stop any accidents of any kind from happening And quickly and ran over to help Tifa.

"Unn…" groaned a seriously dazed Cloud. Barrett and Tifa Suddenly rushed to everyone else with Cloud in their arms. Tifa released her grip while at the same time Barrett placed Cloud slowly to the ground. Red XIII rushed to see if his dear friend was okay. After Barrett moved away, he slowly paced towards his injured friend.

Clouds dirty, yet gleaming face rose from his black, bleeding arms.

"…Red?" moaned the weak and injured hero.

Red XIII moved his tanned, sun-like head over to his friends face and placed his cold, wet nose near him and sniffed just to make sure it was who he thought it was. After realising that it **was **Cloud, Red licked his valiant friend's cold face with his tongue.

Yuffie was just being her cheerful self during the commotion, but was the first to hear noises coming from the ground. Swiftly, she dashed over to the edge of the highwind and peered over the edge of the stolen Airship. She gasped in horror. They had forgotten about what was happening outside the North crater. They had forgotten about meteor. Vincent slowly walked over to Yuffie and together they both looked on in astonishment.

The sky was bruised in purple and dark blue lights!

"Uhh, guys", said Yuffie in an "Oh my god, I forgot the world was going to end" tone.

Everyone, except the injured and badly beaten cloud, slowly paced towards the barrier which Vincent and Yuffie were standing beside. Cait-Sith's cat form jumped onto the barrier and took a quick glance down towards the roaring earth.

Tifa gasped in shock at the sight of the ground…

…It was breaking apart!

"S&t!" shouted Cid

Cait-Sith's moogle body grabbed the cat and together they became Cait-sith again! The moogle didn't want his feline friend to fall now, would he? (rhetorical question)

The roaring ground below started to create a series of holes, from which the lifestream, the planet's blood, could be seen.

"What the fk!" Shouted the crazed and insane man with a gun-arm.

"'The hell is goin' on!"

He quickly ran back to the cargo depo to grab his favourite weapon…The missing score. After attaching his baby to his grafted arm, He ran as fast as he could to the others who were **STILL** staring in astonishment. He knew there would be some kind of a battle.

For the last few moments, the earth had been shaking and stopping in a sequence. But when Barrett finally returned, the ground shook, and shook and shook! After moments of non-stop rumbling, one finally roar came from the ground and the lifestream broke out from the immense underworld and hurtled ferociously towards "Meteor" with the vague image of a fallen hero shining through the vast, turquoise ocean.

A dazed cloud looked up at the lifestream with a glimpse of a smile.

"A…A…Aries?" His voice was too low to have the others hear, but he knew it was her.

"It appears we have failed", said Vincent in a cold tone. Everyone looked on in astonishment as the mystical lifestream swept into the apocalyptic sky. The Sky was going from blue and purple, to black and red from the collision of the pure good and evil entities.

The killer materia collided head-on with the lifestream leaving the sky permanently scarred… for the moment at least.

The destined fighters looked on in astonishment as the fireworks display began in the night sky.

The wave from the collision was felt from as far as Wutai, to Nibelhiem, to even the chocobo ranch to the far east of the eastern continent!

Even the amazing highwind shook from the immense, catastrophic collision. Everyone on the ship gripped tightly to anything they could find. All except Cloud, sadly, due to his injuries, who was flung like a dart against the other side of the deck of the SHINRA airship.

"Cloud!" shouted Tifa with a passionate and fearful tone.

"Ahh!" screamed Cloud as his neck whiplashed off of the tungsten beam of the highwind's rail.

Red XIII was the first to aid his fallen compadré. As swift as a shooting star, he jolted down the deck of the rocking airship. When he at last reached his injured friend, he tried to awake Cloud from his unconscious state, but his attempts were in absolute vain.

The others quickly struggled to aid Red XIII in his revival of Cloud, but another huge shockwave suddenly smashed against the highwind at that moment throwing Red into the air! He flew all the way from one side of the airship to the other, landing on Vincent in the process.

"I am not amused…" moaned Vincent as he threw Red XIII straight off him in a violent notion

"Watch the fur!" shouted Red straight back at the Ex turks face with a scowl. The two would have loved to shout and bicker more, however, in the present situation, they both decided that it would be absolutely pointless. So, instead they both ran over to the staggering others who were all gathered around cloud, checking to see if their brave leader was okay.

In a quick attempt to revive him, Cait-Sith quickly took "full-cure" materia and attached it to his great and powerful wizard's armlet. He then, as quickly as he could, used the magic on Cloud in an attempt to revive his fallen friend.

"No!" screamed Red XIII, however, alas, his warning was far too late.

Cait-Sith didn't even get the slightest chance to call back his healing magic and stop his actions. Before Cait had started his incantation Red realised that materia was spherical condensed mako energy, planet blood in simple terms. And by unlocking the hidden magic within, it could cause the magic powers inside, being this close to the lifestream, would cause the lifestream to attract the magic and thus impale Cloud if it was anywhere near his vicinity, and, seeing as the spell was being cast on him, it definitely was.

The gasping gang looked upwards towards the part of the scarred sky from where the six dimensions of hell were opening up!

The lifestream vs. the black material, also known as "Meteor",

Turquoise vs. Red and Black,

Good vs. evil.

Tifa looked up again and realised that the battle between the lifestream and meteor was much like the eternal battle between Cloud, and the world's pure essence of evil…Sepheiroth.

Swiftly, the thoughts rushed out of Tifa's head however, as a brilliant ultra-blue light shone from the planets blood.

Clouds eyes opened and started slowly widening as he had caught a glimpse of a serpent like figure coming straight from the lifestream towards him at very high speeds. His scarred arm slowly rose to point towards the swift image. Cloud was unable to speak to the others and tell them that something was coming from meteor, so, he coughed, loudly and Barret was the first of the crew to notice that Cloud had his hand in the air and was pointing towards a white figure coming from the life stream. As an act to his faithful friend and to show that he was paying attention, Barrett was the first to shout out.

"Holy S&t! look out!" he screamed loudly, but he was sadly, too late, as the brilliant serpent-like figure of life-stream whizzed past Barrett's shoulders and headed straight towards Cloud.

It was a horrific sight.

The life-stream serpent impaled Cloud straight through the gut. This caused Cloud to scream like he had never screamed before. It was frightful.

Tifa yelled, "NOOO!" She fell to her knees and covered her knees with her hand to stop herself from hearing the horrific cries from her childhood friend.

While this was happening, Cait-sith, the fluffy, bouncy, living doll, was slowly walking over to the other side of the airship running the same thoughts through his cotton head.

What have I done?

What have I done?

"What have you done!" screamed Yuffie in the direction of the slouching toy. All Cait could do was put even more guilt onto his now overloaded shoulder.

Cid turned towards the direction from which Yuffie's voice was loudly coming from and saw her screaming at Cait-Sith.

After slowly walking for a few seconds Cait put a stop into his tracks and started slowly mumbling something to Yuffie.

"I…I…didn't know", he replied with a large amount of sorrow in his tone. His fluffy body fell to the ground and at that moment Clouds eyes went from screwed up because of the excruciating pain, to wide, bloodshot and glowing red!

Tifa, who still had her head on the ground, slowly looked up from her sad state and was the first of the team to notice the way in which the once valiant hero, Cloud, had changed.

She slowly and quietly started stuttering towards her friend.

"C…C…Cloud?" she questionably asked.

At that point Barrett had stopped staring at the life-stream while everyone except from Cait-Sith started

staring at the injured and possibly eternal tormented Cloud, and during another few seconds Cloud let out another deafening cry of pain.

"Ahhhhhh!" Screamed Cloud in a Deeper and more evil tone than normal.

"Cloud!" shouted Red XIII.

The life-stream had created some kind of a loop between the battle with meteor and Cloud.

Though their was a battle was raging on up above, it seemed remotely like it was also happening inside

Cloud.

"Seems to be quite a Crisis we have on our hands", said the dark Vincent in his usual cold tone.

At that moment red XIII's temper suddenly snapped like a twig. He couldn't take it! To have his friend screaming in agony right beside him, with people trying to help him and all that stupid Vincent could say was that their was a crisis!

"I'm gonna kill you!" barked Red XIII ferociously at Vincent. Swiftly, he pounced fiercely at Vincent. Well, at least he attempted to. While he was in mid-air, Barrett fired the missing score at the wooden floorboards on the ground of the airship. His quick sharp shooting caused red to startle, allowing Vincent the time he needed to evade the attack.

Nanaki landed face first on the hard, wooden floorboards of the flying airship. Rapidly, he peeled his swolen face from the floorboards of the deck and quickly faced an angry one-armed man.

"Look! Stop fightin' y'all and start paying Fn' attention! We have a Crisis and you two fightin' ain't helpin' anyone!"

Red XIII started cooling down from his temper swiftly.

"fine", he said, still scowling, "Have it your way!"

"HEY!" screamed Yuffie fiercely "Look!" she hastily threw her pointed finger in the direction of the fierce looking meteor.

For a few moments of silence, everyone ignored the hero in pain (all except Tifa that is) to look upwards towards the demon from hell and the angel of light raging in their ferocious battle.

"What's that coming from the lifestream?" yelled Yuffie. At that moment in time even Tifa looked on as a small object emerged from the part of the lifestream which was trying to destroy meteor. Everyone looked in shock as the strange orb-like object started running down the lifestream like it was melted butter, slowly cutting the loop between Cloud and the main chunk. As the orb moved closer to Cloud, more and more of the lifestream road began to diminish and it seemed like another bad thing was about to happen (again).

After about a few more seconds, suddenly, without notice, the loop between the two broke, leaving lifestream flowing through a hole through Clouds now double coloured torso. I say double coloured because the mix of blood and Lifestream split into two separate sides causing it to look sort of toothpaste like.

The road had disappeared after a few more seconds and all that was left of it was turqoised blobs on the ground, but even that didn't stop the orb. It levitated from where it was miles above the ground without any support from anything. It was still slowly heading in the direction of the red-eyed hero.

"Noo!" screamed Cid. "not again! not to Cloud! Stop the piece of St!"

Without any delay, Yuffie was the first to attempt to reach her secret lover. Oritsuru flew within a matter of seconds at the orb in an attempt to try and break the evil, however, after the ninja had she thrown her most powerful of samuraic weapons, a black bolt of darkness was shot from the orb which struck the star so hard that it was thrown all the way back in the direct path of Yuffie.

She could do nothing but look on in severe shock, trembling quickly. She was staring at her demise.

"look out!" screamed Cid. He couldn't take it. Another one of his well known friends could become injured and possibly die from her own weapon. Nothing was in his head at that moment except the sensation to save his friend from death, so without hesitation, he took his dragoon lance and started running towards Yuffie who was still staring aimlessly at death. Cid quickly shoved his lance knee deep into his glorious airship. While doing his heroic act he began to wonder, How much was this damage going to cost. However this was just a minor thought as this helpless thought was quickly flushed away by the fact that he had just used his weapon like a pole used in vaulting and was in mid-air and quickly plummeting towards Yuffie

After finally returning to reality, Cid quickly put his arms out in front of him and grabbed Yuffie at so high a speed that she fell to the ground bashing her nose on the floorboards. Unfortunately, Cids act of bravery did not come without a price. And the stakes were quite high. After quickly realising that he and the materia thief had hit the ground, a huge and sudden shock of pain began to originate from Cids right leg. The ninjitsu weapon had struck back, hard!

"Ahh!" he yelled. "YOU FN' PIECE OF ST!"

Barret quickly turned around to find the white star weapon had skewered right through Cids leg and this, in turn, pinned him to the deck.

"Cid!" shouted Barret in fury, "Damn you BD"

His gun-arm panned in the direction of the orb and began blasting the devilish orb with all of his might.

After the smoke finally cleared, Barrets mouth literally hung open as all of his bullets which he had just wasted were floating in mid air around it, waiting.

Vincent turned around at just the right time to see the bullets fall from their floating place in the sky towards the mountainous earth.

There was nothing anyone else could do. Barrett and Vincent were unable to gun it down, Yuffies star was pinned through Cid's leg into the wooden floorboards of the highwind and Cid was unable to move. Everyone with some kind of long range weapon was out for the count!

The orb was no just 10 feet away from Cloud, who was still screaming with eyes glowing red. Tifa was still next to Cloud on her knees with her eyes dripping with tears

She looked to her side to find the orb, with a quick dissipating trail of mako behind it. She gasped as it slowly moved towards her and Cloud. The spiky haired hero was screaming so loudly that it made Cid almost forget the fact that he had a sharp piece o metal in his leg. That was until Yuffie came along and pulled it out without giving a damn about his ankle. The scream which came from him could scare even the undead away. It almost reached the same pitch as Clouds yells!

With his childhood friend impaled through his gut from his mako, and an evil orb heading straight for him, Tifa ran recklessly at the black orb. But no sooner had she attempted to throw a dragon punch combo, the devilish orb let out a deep black pulse which threw Tifa across the airship smashing her head off of the door to the deck below causing her to become unconscious.

The next person to take a run at the "Thing" was Red, but was just about as successful as Tifa he was flung in around the same direction as Tifa and he lay there unable to move but still able to know what was going on around him.

Alas, while all of this was going on, Cait-Sith was sitting down staring into space all on his own, hanging his head in shame. It was his entire fault. All this was because he was stupid enough to cast magic when mako was out of the ground. All that was happening to Cloud was his entire fault. He was in no condition to even think about helping cloud, as guilt was shrouding his conscious mind.

The entire team had given the orb the best that they had however they finally realised that it was no use! None of them even got close to destroying it. The devilish entity was just too powerful.

Now, the orb was just a meter away from Cloud and his wound. After all that had happened to him, Brainwashing, cloning and even fusion. All that seemed to be nothing compared to the fear going through him right now. His eyes were burning, he couldn't see, The pain in his gut had gone numb and his arms were swinging around uncontrollably. Cloud realised that all this obviously led to the conclusion that _HE_ was coming back.

For a split second, it seemed like time itself had stopped. It was a bit like a photograph but in 3D. Tifa and Red unconscious, Barret and Vincent look on in fear, Yuffie helping Cid with his injured leg, The lifestream still trying to destroy meteor and the black orb one meter away from Cloud, who was in extreme pain and Fear.

The image seemed to be perfectly preserved.

But the harmony didn't last for long. Time began to flow normally, at last the orb started moving closer to the spiky hero.

"Cloud!" screamed a tearful Yuffie. There was nothing she could do.

After a few seconds of stillness from the orb, it shot right into Clouds sagging body. Tifa, Still Slightly dazed, awoke and stared with chilling fear at the sight of her long known childhood friend.

Clouds eyes suddenly burst with rays of red, and the beams began to melt the floorboards of the Highwind.

"ST!" shouted Cid, still feeling the excruciating pain of having a ninja star stuck right through his leg.

"That son-of-a-bh! He'll ruin my airship!"

The burning sensation in Clouds eyes suddenly reached immense proportions. It felt like his eyes themselves were burning away!

By now he had lost all feeling in his body. He was able to hear everyone shouting ferociously at him, trying to help him in his painful struggle. Cloud was unable to Speak though and only felt the feeling that his stomach was strangely healing itself.

The last of the lifestream loop quickly diminished from his bloody stomach but Cid was worried about his Airship at the time as it started to melt and diminish as well. He finally realised he had become too attached to the Stolen Airship he had gained from SHINRA's base at Junon.

But within the moment of deep thought Cid had gone into, He was flung to the deck as Yuffie fell to her knees crying her heart out. Cid quickly forgot about the physical pain and exchanged it for emotional. (Archai: Strangely enough no-one cares about Cloud! He has an orb in him for god's sake! Can nobody hear him scream?)

Tifa couldn't bear to watch Cloud in what seemed to be like his body was filling with Chaos and it was boiling up underneath his blue, sagging T-shirt.

She couldn't take any more of it. Tifa knelt on the burning airships floorboards and put her head into her bruised arms, trying to block out the sight and horror of Clouds struggle to survive.

But during this, Cait-Sith was still sitting in the corner of the airship moaning and feeling depressed about himself. Slowly, he turned his big fluffy head around to see the chaos and destruction he had caused.

What he saw was just a glimpse of what was to come…

A creak came from above him and slowly, he panned his head upwards to find a section of the highwind's exterior plummeting towards him. Cait-Sith's toy eyes widened.

Vincent turned to where the creaking noises were coming to find Cait-Sith cowering in fear. Swiftly, he ran towards where Cait-Sith was, Jumped high into the murky air, and pushed himself and Cait-Sith out of the way of the Falling pieces narrowly escaping being crushed by the highwind's roof section.

Alas, Cait didn't get a chance to thank his ex-Turk friend as a cataclysmic sound came from the Six hell dimensions which were opening up above. Clouds swiftly dissipating eyes panned upwards, much further than Cait-Sith, towards Meteor, unknown to him that the beams from his eyes were going right through the astraic Surface, helping the lifestream in the process. The Blood of the planet began slowly breaking through the Dark materia.

The fighters started to look in astonishment as Meteor began crumbling into a million pieces. The whole experience Stuck to their minds. The way the Lifestream began glowing brighter and brighter and the swiftness of the lifestream skewering the Demonic magic until it exploded with cataclysmic proportions.

Everyone but Vincent gasped in astonishment at the sight of the fireworks in the sky above them. But the astonishment took a twist as Cloud's shoulder blades began to burn ferociously. He began to think, that at long last, he would finally die.

"No more pain!" he was thinking to himself. But his wish sadly was not granted to him. A strange surge of power began o move up his bloody arm. The further it moved up his injured limb, the more he lost control of it. His arm began to act like it had a mind of its own as it was uncontrollably shaking wildly!

Vincent turned to see cloud in what seemed to be his final moments of control Without Hesitation, Vincent ran straight towards Cloud at tremendous speed, but it was too late.

The strange power had already reached past clouds limp neck. His eyes had closed. Nothing was alive inside the traumatised Saviour of the planet.

Vincent grabbed Clouds shoulders and began violently shaking his comrade0

"Cloud! Wake up! Cloud!"

Injured and still bleeding, the highwind pilot known only as Cid barely stood up and was the first to notice the brilliant white light coming from the raging battle up above.

"Look" screamed Cid to everyone. The heroes looked on in astonishment as the brilliant white light got brighter and brighter by the minute, moving closer and closer towards them.

Clouds eyes opened during that time. He wasn't in control of his movements. There was an entity controlling his body, his vessel. Something evil was either rising or already risen to the point where it had completely overtaken his body.

Cloud tried to tell Vincent what was happening, that he should get away but he was unable to say anything

Vincent looked to Cloud again, like he had been doing for the last few seconds. As he looked, clouds head rose from the ground. He found his compadré sniggering sinisterly at him and instantly he knew something was wrong…

"C…C…Cloud?" asked Vincent.

Again the Vessel of Cloud smirked but this time something unbelievable happened.

It quickly grabbed Vincent's collar on his Red and Black costume making causing him to become immobilized.

The monster began to speak.

"Arise, ORGA-weapon. You shall help me"

The sentence finished with clouds red eyes becoming engulfed in shadow. Tifa and Red got up and

turned to find Black beams from the puppet-like Clouds eyes penetrating straight through Vincent's eyes!

"Stop it Cloud!" screamed Tifa.

Once Tifa had shouted, the Shadowy beams soused. The Demonic presence inside the Fallen hero let go of Vincent. He fell with a thump to the molten ground of the highwind at quite a speed. Even for reds eyes!

The head of the Vessel slowly turned towards Tifa who was now on the ground in tears and looked at her with a sinister and sadistic look.

"It has begun. The Final Moments are upon us…" said the demon.

Red was unable to stop the madman . Barrett, Cid, Yuffie and Cait-Sith looked on, As the white from the sky engulfed everything. For a few long seconds nothing could be seen.

After those few long minutes however, colour started to reappear around the area where they were standing. The heroes were blinded for a moment, but once they saw the dull colours of the airships deck they were okay and back to normal again. The heroes looked upwards as the once planet threatening Meteor had vanished. The lifestream also had disappeared.

"the lifestream has returned to its natural place" said Red XIII with a sigh of relief in his tone, much like everyone else. Tifa Slowly edged herself up off of the ground and started to lift her tearful face. To her horror, and Reds, They realised that the devilish Cloud had disappeared without a trace. Barrett turned from his view looking out onto the vast sky's to where Cloud was last seen Vincent lying like he was half dead. He ran over to him quickly

"Yo, Vince!" shouted Barrett. His Slum accent made his surge of emotion very strange indeed

Vincent lay very pale, with no sign of movement, one of the highwind's melted black planks of wood.

Barrett started to worry. He began to feel the same amount of emotion he had felt when he was about to lose Dyne. What was he to do?

Unlike What Cid had done, he wouldn't hesitate. He was not going to end up limping on one leg. Barrett wasn't like that. Sure he swears and curses now and then but he can keep his cool and act swiftly to keep himself alive in battle. But this wasn't a battle at the moment. This was about keeping a dear friend alive.

He began checking to see if he could help Vincent in any way.

Again Tifa fell to her knees. It was all too much for her

"N…n…no", she whispered to herself with sorrow in her tone. After her sentence pain started to go up her throat. Emotions started to surge up her body and at last, She let it al loose.

She swung her head swiftly upwards and:

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The yell roared across the countless ranges of mountains like a lion roaring across a high rock to the entire plane of animals.

Nanaki paced slowly towards the brown haired heroine just a few meters in front of her.

The mental damage could be easily seen on Tifa's face

As an act of Sympathy, Red licked Tifa's fully red face, in an attempt to show her that he knew what she was feeling and in a strange and bizarre way, she could understand what he was saying.

She slowly moved her soft, delicate lips into a smile which could knock the sun out of the now normal sky.

"Thanks Red", replied Tifa to her loyal companion. Within that moment, she wiped the tears from her face and stood up.

Realising why Barrett was standing where he was standing, shouting and bawling, she ran over to where Vincent lay to try and see if there was anything she could do, and Red followed her as well, but while running he realised that there was something different about Vincent. His scent seemed irregular.

Though Vincent was alive, something was seriously different about him. Nanaki ran through his head every logical conclusion that he could figure out but the only one that made sense was that Vincent was just a little ill.

Red Began thinking to himself. "It's a good thing Cloud, or whatever that thing is didn't kill Vincent. _If_ that was what it was trying to do…"

After standing motionless for a few seconds, Red Xiii Decided to break the good news to everyone around him.

"Vincent is alive!" he shouted loudly.

"Oh thank goodness!" replied Tifa, sighing with relief while jumping for joy at the fact that she had not lost two friends in the fight.

"Hey, Y'all, get the hell over here now!" screamed Barrett.

Though they didn't want to, they had to go over and see what Barrett wanted. He had lost everything and it seemed like they owed it to him to go over. The only two things that were left in this world for him were Marlene and them. Thus they walked over to him to see what he wanted.

Slowly, with Yuffie in the lead, aiding Cid across, everyone walked over to see if Vincent was conscious.

For a while, the group stood around Vincent in silence, but after a few short minutes, movement come from the recently lifeless corpse.

Vincent had awoken with one hell of a headache. His vision was blurred and he started to think that he was stone cold dead. Everyone looked and gasped in astonishment as their fearless friend woke up from his state of unconsciousness.

"Vincent! Vincent! Your okay!" Yuffie suddenly let Cid fall to the ground and she began Violently shaking Vincent back and forward.

Vincent felt like he was going to puke from his shaking. He was unable to feel his shoulders. Yuffie's grip was too deep. At last though, Vincent's voice came, back and the first thing he said was…

"Get the hell off me!"

Surprised by Vincent's snappy remark, Yuffie slowly let go of Vincent's Broad shoulders and stepped slowly back from him. She became slightly distressed from his unorthodox behaviour. In fact, she was a little frightened.

Everyone else felt slightly the same way.

They all took a small step backwards.

"What's wrong?" asked Vincent. No one answered.

Red was the first to make a move towards Vincent. The thoughts began firing through his head.

The strange scent.

Perhaps he wasn't ill. Maybe he had something inside of him, like Cloud.

With that thought Red walked over to the feet of the now rising prince of darkness and once again checked his scent. The strange bizarre smell was a little stronger than the last time around. Something was definitely wrong with him but due to what had happened on the airship, he thought it best that he kept his opinions to himself.

Vincent looked downwards at red as he was staring into space.

"Is something wrong red?" asked Vincent.

Nanaki snapped out of his trance and looked up at Vincent.

"N...Nothing, really" he replied, stuttering.

"I was just checking to see if you're okay!"

Slowly, Red paced a few steps backwards away from Vincent.

Tifa and Cid seemed puzzled by Nanaki's strange and bizarre behaviour, but they just brushed it aside and Payed attention to Vincent making sure that he wouldn't fall over again.

Once the immortal vampire had fully raised himself off of the ground, he walked over to the big, red lump of Quivering fear that was once Cosmo canyon's finest. Slowly, he started apologising.

"Look, Red, I'm…"

"Sorry?" added Red XIII in a particularly nasty sentiment.

Vincent panned his head up and down signalling a "Yes that's what I meant" statement.

Tifa walked up to him. Her face fell as she began to speak.

"Vincent," she started, "I was wondering, well, was that the REAL Cloud that did that…um… trance to you?"

Tifa gulped and looked into his cold eyes.

They began to close as he turned away from Tifa's emotional face.

"I..I..don't know…"

With that, Tifa slowly turned around and began walking in the direction of the door, which leads downstairs. There was enough of the ship left to see where she was going. The roofing had fallen to the sides of the Door but she just kicked them out of the way.

"…Your lying…", she quietly muttered under her breath as she walked past the depressed Cat-Moogle.

Vincent walked towards the bow of the now slowly failing airship. It seemed like everyone was pushing away from each other. Vincent and Red had completely changed there ideas about each other, and so had Tifa. Tifa knew that there was something wrong With Vincent and she had to find out what. She was determined to!

"Well, Y'all", began Barrett with a sigh, "I think it is about time we landed.

"I agree" moaned Cid, who was now unable to feel his leg. Everyone began to head towards the pilot's chamber. Cid had to hold onto Yuffie while going down the stairs. Yuffie grabbed him before they even got to the stairs and she wouldn't listen to the word "no",

As the heroes limped and walked downstairs mourning the loss of their leader, Vincent looked out onto the Vast Wasteland of ice and snow. His eye squinted and a small smirk came from his morphed face. The demon felt the urge to speak in his own words at that moment

"it has begun…"

After looking off the side of the highwind at the mountains for few minutes, the vessel and host turned their red cape around and slowly walked to the direction from which the final hero left.

A glint of black popped into the iris of the now dissipating hero. And he began slowly walking down the stairs…


End file.
